What Jeremy Pruitt did for the first time at Vols football practice Tuesday

Tennessee head coach Jeremy Pruitt works with a player during a Vols football practice at University of Tennessee Tuesday, April 10, 2018.

Jeremy Pruitt had a new experience as the Tennessee football coach Tuesday: The first-year Vols coach found himself racing to get out of the way of a play.

“I had to get out of the way and I had to back up,” Pruitt said. “So that’s a good thing.”

Dodging a play was a welcome moment for Pruitt, who has been desiring more physicality and thump from his players after the first half of spring practices. He said Saturday after UT’s first spring scrimmage that the Vols “ain’t hardly got the pop yet.”

So Tuesday’s flash that had Pruitt scrambling out the way was a positive sign, and he said the Vols “practiced with purpose.”

He also said Tennessee competed the right way for the most part, but he still wants more of that sound — the “pop” — that indicates the physicality is where it needs to be.

Rising senior defensive end Kyle Phillips said he isn’t sure there is a greater emphasis on physicality from the new coaching staff. He just chalked it up to football in general and “everybody talking about being tough.”

For the Vols, it’s a matter of consistency in being physical, Phillips believes.

“I think sometimes we do it, sometimes we don’t,” he said Wednesday. “I think that’s really what it boils down to is just being consistent.”

Tennessee is 10 practices into Pruitt’s first spring campaign with its spring game on April 21 fast approaching. The Vols hit the practice field again Thursday for practice No. 11 and have a closed scrimmage Saturday before reaching the final week of spring football.

Phillips believes the Vols are still adjusting to practicing with a different style of coaching, but they are close to getting used to it now amid having new defensive schemes hammered home in meetings and on the field.

Now, Pruitt wants to see — and hear — it translate regularly onto the football field.

“We just have to come in with mental focus and energy every day,” rising senior defensive linemen Shy Tuttle said. “We just have to be ready to do our job 100 percent.”

From what Pruitt said Tuesday, the Vols are moving in the right direction as spring football approaches the final stretch. But what remains is turning competing well for most of practice into a consistent, thorough effort filled with physicality.

With that in mind, Pruitt said the next step for Tennessee is getting players to bring out the “go” in their teammates — and find it in themselves.

“Most of the great players and the guys that are along these walls around here, I bet you coach (Phillip) Fulmer and coach (Johnny) Majors and coach (Doug) Dickey and coach (Robert) Neyland didn’t have to get them to go,” Pruitt said. “When you went out there to practice football, they were ready to practice. They might not have wanted to go to school. They might not have wanted to do a lot of things.

“But when it comes time to play football, the real football players show up.”